Like a lot of shows in the UK, this show will never recover with the current organisers attitude to modellers and the traders! , I am not sure if it is the owners or the people working for them , but someone is making bad decisions.
Costs as with all shows are too high, yes, but we always made a bit of a profit at the shows , it cost us this year for the midlands about 1300 pounds and the boat show 650 pounds , plus the 1200 fuel, 500 for hotels for the 2 shows, its very high costs plus the time it takes to get ready and get to it ( even from the UK )
We booked and paid for the last 2 events at the foss way,However.....
On the way to the first of the 2 `the midlands` we broke down ( brand new lorry ) ,but its a long drive for untested lorry... , 3000 kms or more from Bulgaria , when it broke down ( the third axle control system ( whatever it exactly is! ) in some way conked out and brakes came on and it stopped!) a temporary repair was made by the Scania dealer in Romania and we continued...., the lorry then broke down again and was unrepairable at the time due to lack of parts in ( I think ) Belgium , ADAC recovered it to the main dealer in Holland!
Thursday morning before the show when I got the laptop charged again I sent a message to the organisers ( after 12 hours waiting for recovery ) saying I would not be at the show
Wednesday the next week after the show I got a stroppy message of the arrogant young girl who sells the stands saying how annoyed she was that we had messed up there show by leaving a stand empty,
......no mention of `did you get back ok...or anything like that!, no concern at all just `telling me off like a naughty child`` and to be honest anyone who does that gets nowhere especially when I have over the years paid them over 50 grand for stands at the shows they run.
So I decided to not go to the model boat show, being another 3000 mile drive , I decided to stay in Bulgaria
The show has been failing for years with numbers seem to be dropping since modellers were given less club tickets for display stands, traders treated like rubbish and spoken to like idiots by the staff working for the organisers ( the owners have themselves always been `ok` )
Last year it was even worse parking due to the absurd car park with the gym or what ever it is, now also causes chaos with setup,
Reducing the show to 2 days when Friday was the busy day is absurd!
The show can not continue the way it is being run, they need to take a long look at it and change something!